Tom Washington: Why are Trump's negotiations with Russia different?

To The Daily Sun,

When Donald Trump negotiates, he is aggressive. He commonly will start with an enormous demand of the other party and then hope the other party will make concessions to bring him down. This is how you get things like "I demand Canada," "I want Greenland," "You will pay for my wall," "I demand the Panama Canal." It's a common negotiating style. He is heavy handed while he does it, threatening and imposing tariffs on allies and even refusing to take military action off the table to take Greenland and the Panama Canal.

And then there is Russia. Trump has said he is going to negotiate with Russia to end the war in Ukraine (apparently without telling Ukraine, so not a great start). Before he announced negotiations, his administration stated that Ukraine will not be getting NATO membership, they will not be getting back the nuclear weapons they gave up, and they will not get all of their land back. All of those key pieces of negotiation that Russia is worried about and that Ukraine seeks were taken off that table while apparently getting nothing in return.

Trump has made no trademark aggressive ask of Russia. No "Putin must turn himself in on his arrest warrant" or "Russia must return all of the land, with reparations, and a buffer zone." No angry tweets in all caps complaining threatening fire and fury. He conceded everything in the negotiation before the negotiation began without getting anything in return. When has Trump ever intentionally moved to a position of weakness prior to a negotiation? Why is he taking such a different, softer, deferential position when it comes to Russia? This is not the first time Trump has been inexplicably friendly with Vladimir Putin. It is concerning.

Tom Washington

Laconia